Wolf Moon
by TangleToy
Summary: Protecting those that fear and loathe you.


Title: Wolf Moon  
  
Author: TangleToy  
  
Email: TangleToy@hotmail.com or tangles@subreality.com  
  
Rating: PG or PG-13  
  
[TCP]  
  
Summary: Protecting those that fear and loathe you.  
  
Author's Notes: Thank you Iceman, Acetal, and Chameleon for their spur of the moment beta. *lights candles on the beta shrine* No MiST or Pop-Up. Feel free to poke me over this. Ask before archiving.   
  
Story Notes: This is part of 'The Common People' world, which was created by Kielle. The PG - PG-13 rating is for adult situations.   
  
Dedicated to the Novaroom people because they're all so cuddly in that 'I'm evil, but I'm a damn sexy cool cuddling evil' way. Who's a widdle cutie psycho? And Winter, just because. :)  
  
Disclaimer: I own all the characters. The universe they occupy, however, belongs to Marvel. It's sorta like, me owning the apples but McDonald's owning the pie; but without the burning of the tongue, gulping of cold soda, loss of taste buds, and the 'God Damns.'   
  
Summary: Protecting those that fear and loathe you.  
  
  
Wolf Moon  
  
By TangleToy  
  
Godless goddess girl  
  
Roasting marshmallows in the holy fires  
  
Loved, loving, and still alone  
  
Sticky honey web weaver  
  
Cotton candy wings  
  
Fly away, fly away  
  
Sweet ashes in wind  
  
Burnt and weightless  
  
Burnt and weightless  
  
Sugar and spice melted away  
  
_ - _ - _  
  
  
Lieb stood in the dark snowy clearing, panting heavy clouds to fog about her face. Running through the woods like a wild thing was her one last leap of joy before returning to her studies at the university. Despite the bounds of knowledge, school was always sleeping to her. Old words drowsed in old books, and the rooms were caves of mind waiting to wake up. There was no crisp crackle of snow under foot as you ran, and there was no wind to burn your cheeks. 'One last night,' she thought, 'then I can sleep again.'  
  
::You're not a bear:: a voice chided in her head, and a wolf fell at her feet. ::You don't sleep the winter:: His tongue lolled out in a lupine laugh.   
  
The girl glared at the mocking animal. "Look around you. There's snow covering everything like a blanket, and all the trees are bare."  
  
::You're not a tree either:: he teased in the same tone as before, and he nipped at her ankle. ::You still wear all your colors::  
  
"Do you remove your fur?" she snapped.  
  
The wolf made a great show of rolling to his feet and shaking out his muscles. ::I remove some. In the greening, when the snows melt::  
  
Lieb frowned in petulance, "Seasons. I thought you lived only in the moment." She sounded cheated.  
  
::I live where you live:: his voice in her mind made her think of a rakish young man shrugging in dismissal. She longed to mind speak as he did.  
  
"You have no concept of what I mean," she remarked tartly.  
  
Her tone or her words, he couldn't tell. Perhaps it was her flat eyes not good for even hunting stupid cows that were suddenly an annoyance. ::And glad for it:: He loped away to the trees, but paused to turn back once. ::Better go to den, Blind Eyes. It's getting dark:: He sped off through the trees, snow kicking up behind him in dense clouds.  
  
It had been years since her mutation surfaced, and two years since she had met SoftFoot. Before him, the world had been a warm, muzzy world of voices no one but she heard. While rich and layered in its own textures, Lieb was mad for the easy simplicity of the animal languages. A single word that might have only one possible meaning to a human was an entire tale to a mouse. Her own humanity was a clumsy and gaudy in comparison. Even speaking aloud seemed harsh.  
  
A sleep swirled mind touched hers; a small squirrel offered her a warm body to lie with. Lieb reached back to him and sent an image of a nearby bush, still full with winterberries. He thanked her with a yawn as a mind, sharp and feathered, warned her of snow coming. An owl flew low overhead and she gave a giddy laugh. This world was the best secret, and she was the stingy child, unwilling to share it with anyone else.  
  
On the fringe of her awareness, a gathering worry took shape. Every mind that sought and touched colored the disturbance as evil and human. A hunter was out. Death knew itself and predators that moved in a grim quiet cringed inwardly, like serfs pulling a forelock. Fear, loathing, and disgust mingled together. Lieb felt as the animals that touched her.  
  
Reaching through the senses of those around her, she snuffed the cold air. This danger was a sour smell of sweat, wool, and gun. A wolf in sheep's clothing with gleaming metal teeth. There was something else, something she couldn't place. But it reminded her of long runs and playful chases. Hounds?  
  
Lieb set of in a cautious trot towards the hunter. She intended to be the only animal he saw that night. Moving through the roots and brambles with grace, she was a single purpose. There was no university, no Lieb, no possible spray of blood on snow. There was just this moment, in the crisp air and gathering night. Her heart beat with the breath she exhaled and the easy step moving her forward. What could a hunter know of this life?  
  
At several intervals, she stepped carelessly, breaking small twigs under her too large paws. The sound alerted those around the quiet woods. "Danger," the sound meant. "I am coming to get you, to rend you, to snap you in my jaws." Small and large creatures fled, and Lieb was happy to thin the hunter's game. Her lips spread in a toothful grin, and her tongue ran the ridge of her sharp, neat, teeth. One last hunt before the sleep. One last glory in this moon.  
  
A stubborn, prideful anger leapt up walling her in, and Lieb growled low in her throat. An angry stag pawed the ground in challenge. Brown, white, and heavily antlered he was a hard noble god.   
  
"Fool!" she snarled. "Leave here and live."  
  
::I protect my own:: he replied darkly. An image of a late birth and a sickly doe pushed at her.  
  
"We don't have time to argue, Meat. This isn't your way. Turn tail and run. Live to take another doe." It came out as a rumble of impatience, and what was human in her shrank away.  
  
"Everything is different, Changer." The tone was cold like ice. "Can you think to walk and not leave tracks to follow?"  
  
Lieb sidled nearer to where she sensed mother and child. The stag would follow, if she could move them to flight. But the animal would not shake off. He lowered his antlers in charge. ::You will not take them from me::  
  
She snapped the air gulping it down to chill her belly. "You waste my time, Meat. Today you live...by my leave. Tomorrow you may not be so lucky." She swung slick jaws to where the hunter stalked. "I go to save your flea bitten hide."  
  
::Of course. And this has nothing to do with your own wants:: his words were colored with sinister amusement.  
  
It angered Lieb, and she sped away. Another kill, another night.  
  
How dare he. She did this for him. She did this for all of them. She gave voice to the voiceless in God's own work. Lieb was a prophet, a lamb in wolf's clothing.  
  
She remembered the hound when it slammed into her from the side. They went down in a roll of snarling, snapping teeth, and red flashes of pain.  
  
::Wolf! Wolf! Here! Here!::  
  
Lieb drug her nails into his soft belly.  
  
::Game! Here! Master! Here!:: He grasped her throat in his jaws and shook. ::Be still! Die with honor::  
  
Warmth splashed down her chest and colored the snow. "Never," she whispered.  
  
Hound dropped the game and stood back. Wolves didn't speak in the Master's tongue, and even the smell of wolf steamed away from the flesh. ::Girl?::  
  
Darkness hovered near to claim her. Lieb bared her pretty fangs to it, blood bubbling at the corners of her lips. "rend you. eat you. snap you in my jaws." Her words were soft.   
  
::Girl?:: Hound asked and whined. He raced off to find Master, leaving Lieb in the snow.  
  
Rolling to her knees was harder than anything she had ever done. The forest around her spun and swirled. Each step she took found her standing on heaving ground. "My brothers!" she cried weakly, staggering forward. Whispering into the night, "My brothers." The words lost in a new wind roaring in her ears.  
  
::You were never one of us, Changer:: came the words before the sharp antlers.   
  
Lieb looked down at her chest, fingering the smooth weapons. "pretty." She was dragged to her knees as they were pulled from her chest. A red waterfall erupted from her shirtfront marking the territory around her. She fell backwards, folded neatly in two. The stars twinkled above her.   
  
The roaring wind was gone now. Senses, all her own, sharpened. A rough tongue lapped her face, and she smelt the rabbit SoftFoot had devoured. "My God, why have you forsaken me?"  
  
Laughter, soft at first, broke across her mind in flashing colors. ::Wolves have no God::  
  
~fins~  
  
  
  
  



End file.
